One More Visit
by FionaTailynn
Summary: Sequel to One Last Visit (/story/story preview.php?storyid 8617623) Part two of the "Inevitable" series. After over hearing a discussion between John and the Doctor, Sherlock finds a screen with something terrible about him written on it. And inevitable. Meanwhile, someone erased the entire population of an alien planet.


7

7

Sherlock knew he shouldn't be doing this. This was a private conversation between John and the Doctor but the consulting detective in him couldn't help but listen:

…"You should be a bit more worried than you are." The Doctor said.

"Oh come on! Isn't it better not to worry about it?"

Sherlock didn't dare peek around the corner. He was under the control panel, attentively trying to catch on every word that the two men above him were saying. He knew it wasn't right to do things like that but since he'd joined "Team TARDIS", how the Doctor obnoxiously called it, he felt the two of them had constantly been keeping secrets from him.

It was very hard to calculate time passing when one travelled through it. But a lot had happened since the day that he'd returned to his flat for those three minutes.

First of all, the Doctor had explained to him how the TARDIS could be bigger on the inside, which to the Doctor's surprise he'd understood very quickly, and all the other wonders of the blue police box. Soon enough, simply by observing, he understood pretty much how to fly it. Second of all, in return he'd told John all about what he'd been up to in the passed three years. Since then they'd fought the Daleks, seen a huge space-station network disintegrate without anything possible to help, stopped a Sontaran infantry from destroying an entire planetary systems, fought the Daleks again (that would even be a third time for John) and probably countless more things that were too amazing (yes, even for Sherlock) to explain.

But, it seemed as though every time there was a mention of danger, John and the Doctor would both look at him for a second and then exchange looks, as if they were worried something would happen. So Sherlock decided it was time to get behind it all.

"Not always, John. We need to be careful. One false move and we could destroy the entire universe."

Sherlock raised his eyebrows. It didn't seem normal that he was left out on such crucial information, as it seemed.

"Come on. We're going to be fine. This'll all work out."

"I just don't want this to end badly. It already happened too many times."

"I'll look after him, I promise."

"Just be careful! Now, can you come and help me with the multi-dimensional stabilizer?"

"I won't be much help, but fine."

They both climbed up the stairs and when Sherlock felt they were far enough he walked back up to the main floor.

What were they talking about? He was sure it had something to do with him but he hadn't gotten enough context to understand what it was. Sherlock leaned on the control panel and looked around the room. Suddenly something caught his eye. The monitor was left on, and he could see his name clearly being the title of whatever the rest of the text under it was.

Sherlock cautiously moved close so he could clearly read what it said. After having read it he couldn't exactly explain to himself what he'd just seen so he flew over it one, two, three more times until it finally synced in.

He was inevitably going to die the moment he went back to his own time. And even though he hated to admit it to himself, he knew he'd eventually miss 221B because of those goddamned three years. But he'd never be able to go back again. Yes, he'd enjoyed very much traveling with his best friend and the odd, yet intriguing Doctor, but really he'd wanted to one day go back to what he'd been running for so long. But instead of letting the fact that he knew his death date, death time and death location get to him, he decided to act as if he hadn't seen this and switched the screen off. Just then the Doctor and John walked back in.

"I told you I wouldn't be any help!"

"I still specifically told you which setting to put on the screwdriver! That was most definitely not the one I said!" The Doctor said annoyed.

"Y ou said 'the flashy one'. How was I supposed to know what that was?" John replied equally irritated.

"What exactly is the problem here?" Sherlock joined in.

They both looked back at him.

"Nothing, everything's fine. John probably just shrunk the inside of the TARDIS or something." The Doctor said.

"Okay, stop being so melodramatic it's not like anyone will notice!"

"How about," Sherlock interrupted, although honestly he was quite amused by this fight, "another planet Doctor?"

"Oh look he's showing off again with his "I'm the only human who can fly the TARDIS" thing." The Doctor said jealously to which John had to laugh.

Sherlock couldn't say he was very good at this, but the Doctor probably mostly acted like he always knew what to press here, since Sherlock had found some things he did completely random and without pattern.

But still, he managed to pull the right lever so that the flight began. He picked a place and date at random because he didn't know where to go anyway and managed to land (in these moments he felt as proud as right after having made a spot on deduction).

"Where are we?" John asked. The Doctor walked over to the screen to take a look. "Nice choice. Planet known as Messaline, home to the hath and human race."

"Stop talking and come on!" Sherlock had already put on his scarf and coat and was headed for the door. The Doctor and John quickly followed him. Sherlock opened the door and stepped out. They were in the middle of an empty city.

The three of them looked around. It was midday but completely silent. One could've heard a pin drop. Something caught Sherlock's attention and he immediately starting walking towards the door of an extremely tall skyscraper.

"What are you doing?" The Doctor asked.

"There's something wrong with the doors." The Doctor looked at them.

"Oh, yes you're right." And ran in the same direction as Sherlock was going.

John rolled his eyes and caught up to them. "Look Sherlock, the Doctor here is maybe just the only person in the universe who speaks whatever language you're talking right now, but I'll just give you a little heads up that the TARDIS doesn't translate it for me!"

"This city is completely empty." Sherlock began explaining. "But the doors, they were frequently opened. Not just frequently, also recently. This city was full of people not a week ago."

"Okay…"

"And now we're closer, we can see the windows."

"Yeah they're all open."

"No, not open, broken."

"But there aren't any glass shatters?"

"Of course there are. They were broken in from the outside, so the shatters are within the building. But someone must've kidnapped everyone here."

"But how do you know that's what happened to everyone."

"The door is locked from the inside, people were in it."

"So the entire city was kidnapped?" John asked.

"And presumably killed or used as slaves." Sherlock said maybe a little more cold than was appropriate for the situation.

In the mean time the Doctor had been scanning the entire area with his sonic screwdriver.

"Not just the city." He said cautiously, "The entire planet."

"How do you know?" Sherlock asked.

"I'm only reading the presents of three humanoid life forms on it."

"So… we're on an empty planet?" John said quietly.

The Doctor looked at him and nodded. They all looked down (yes, even Sherlock understood how bad this was!). Then suddenly Sherlock looked up.

"But there is a chance that they're alive! And if they are, whoever these kidnappers are, they couldn't have transported them too far in at less than a week."

The Doctors face lit up and he put his screwdrivers on a different setting making it flash around (John wondered if that was the setting he'd meant earlier) and pointed it up.

No one said something for a couple seconds.

"I have a signal!" the Doctor suddenly exclaimed and ran back into the TARDIS.

John quickly followed him but then noticed Sherlock wasn't coming. He was just staring into space.

"What's wrong? Aren't you coming?"

"What?" Sherlock suddenly looked up. "Oh, yeah…" He got up from his kneeling position and walked towards the TARDIS.

They both got inside where the Doctor was already looking at the screen. He seemed very excited. But suddenly his face dropped.

"What is it?" John asked.

"I found out what kind of ship it is."

"And?" said Sherlock.

"It's a Dalek ship."

John rolled his eyes. "Are they ever going to die?"

"It's not like you didn't expect that, John."

"Can you two please stay serious for a while? These Daleks might've killed off billions of life forms, the entire population of this planet!"

"Yes, we know…" John said a little guiltily.

"Actually we don't, we should never assume before we're sure."

"Well we will be soon, I've locked myself onto their ship. Hold on tight." And again the TARDIS made that extremely loud noise that no one except for the Doctor particularly liked. When the noise stopped nobody moved from their position or spoke.

"What now?" John asked.

"I don't know. But first of all, let's get out of here."

They cautiously stepped towards the door and got out of the TARDIS.

The spacecraft was dark and there were pipes around them. It was quite humid and warm in it.

"The whole spacecraft is pretty improvised." Sherlock pointed out. The Doctor started pointing his screwdriver in every direction, looking for any sign of life.

He then got furious and kicked the wall.

"What is it?" John asked.

"We came to late. Still only three humanoid life forms."

"Yes, but how many Daleks, Doctor? If we couldn't save them, we can at least stop it from happening again."

The Doctor switched something on his screwdriver and held his ear right up close to it. "Hard to tell, I'd say no more than five though."

"Well, that's pretty good, right?" John tried to reassure him.

The Doctor turned his head and looked at him seriously.

"No Dalek is good."

"Good point. Still better than last time."

"Where are they?" Sherlock asked walking down the dark hallway.

The Doctor pointed the sonic in every direction.

"Follow me!" he shouted and ran off.

John and Sherlock exchanged glances, smiled at each other and ran after him.

In the distance Sherlock started to make out voices; voices with that distinct dalekyness. The three of them ran to a wall and snuck along side it. The Doctor glanced around the corner turned back and held up two fingers.

_Two Daleks._

Sherlock and John both nodded.

"We need to find out what they're up to." The Doctor whispered. The three of them closed their eyes and listened carefully.

"We need to find more humans to succeed. The population of the planet is not sufficient, but the flesh converter is not ready yet so we can acquire more."

"Failure is not an option. We shall wait until more humans will come, if we must."

Suddenly a third Dalek entered the room:

"Readings show that there are two live humans and a time lord on board. The doctor has brought us fuel."

The Doctor and John both stared at Sherlock for a while and exchanged looks, only this time he understood why.

"You will bring them to me!"

"Oops! I'm already here. Hi!" The Doctor said stepping out playfully. Sherlock and John both glanced around the side of the wall. The three Daleks didn't move.

"What? No exterminations? No rants? Or can you just not risk firing at me?"

None of the Daleks spoke.

"See that's brilliant, because as far I can tell, you've created a machine that incinerates humans to create energy, but because it only can take humans for some stupid reason, you don't have enough energy to leave here or even waste it by shooting me down."

"You will tell us where the humans are."

"First, you'll tell me what happened to the hath."

"They were exterminated."

He seemed to become angry but chose not to show it. "So you didn't realize how low on power you were back then?" the Doctor mocked.

"You will tell us where the humans are." The Daleks repeated.

"The humans are in my protection. And you'll have to get passed me to get to them."

Suddenly one Dalek exclaimed: "Humans located!"

"Find them!"

John and Sherlock both started running back the way they came.

"Where do we go now?" John asked slightly out of breath.

"I'd say back to the TARDIS."

They both made their way there, but just when the time machine was in sight a Dalek came from the left and cut their path.

"All humans will be exterminated and brought to the flesh converter!"

"Okay, how about we go here." Sherlock took John's hand and pulled him to the right hallway. There were a lot of futuristic looking guns on the floor, probably from armed humans that were then killed. Right about then they heard a big blast. Both John and Sherlock looked in the direction it came from, both presuming it was the Doctor's work.

They kept on running and finally found a place to hide. Right then Sherlock felt something in his pocket. The psychic paper! He still had it from the last where… well you had to be there to understand. Sherlock cautiously opened and found a message from the Doctor inside:

Took care of the two Daleks and need you to handle the last one.

Come to the TARDIS immediately; I set the flesh converter to self-destruct in eight minutes.

-D

"Why does he always copy that initials thing from me?" Sherlock said somewhat annoyed.

"You're not the only one who does that, Sherlock." They were both leaning on a small wall. John looked around the corner.

"I don't think we have a lot of time until the Dalek will find us."

"Hang on, I'll try to come up with a plan." He closed his eyes and started to concentrate.

"Okay, so what do we do, Sherlock?" John asked a little later.

Sherlock opened his eyes and looked around while thinking about it, when sudden realization crept over him.

"Sherlock? What do we _do_?" Sherlock didn't answer. He lifted up a gun from the floor and handed it to John.

"Here, take this. You'll need it."

"Okay, but are you going to do?"

Sherlock paused to find the right words to say it. "I… I'm going to step in front of it and let it shoot me."

John's face dropped. "W-what?" No you can't! You actually, literally can't!"

"Yes I can. That Dalek is low on energy; it's ray won't kill me immediately, after that it'll come up to me so it can bring me to the flesh converter, then you'll have a clear shot at it from here."

"But… that won't work! The Daleks can't even kill each other with one of their own rays!"

"Yes, but shooting once will make it even more vulnerable than it is now. After you killed it, you have to bring me to the TARDIS as fast as possible and the Doctor will bring us back to two thousand and fifteen in two-two-one-B."

"You can't go back there, because…" John caught himself and didn't finish the sentence.

"The ray will be strong enough to kill me eventually. Then it will all fall into place, John."

"How do you know about that?" John asked shocked.

"I… I saw the screen. You left it on before we got here."

"No, Sherlock. I can't let you go now. I promised I'd look after you."

"John! Why are we even discussing this? This is our only option!"

John shook his head lightly. "No, there has to be another way."

"The other is both of us dying on an exploding ship, which would then destroy the universe because I'm not supposed to die here!"

"You can't die now. You deserve to live longer than this. And most of all… you can't leave me again."

"I'm sorry, but I have to. You said you promised to look after me, that's what you're going to do. Because the moment that Dalek strikes me, I won't be able to walk or maybe even speak anymore, and you have to make sure I do get back on time " Sherlock pulled John into hug.

"Thank you for pushing me to the side. You gave me the chance to have a bearable life one last time, but now it's time to go." He held on to John even more tightly than before. "I trust you with this John."

John nodded and felt his eyes tearing up. "Okay." He said almost inaudibly.

Finally they pulled themselves apart and Sherlock confidently gave John one last look. He stood up and stepped out of their hiding place where the Dalek was waiting for him.

"Exterminate."

"Predictable as always."

John closed his eyes as he heard a zap and a body crumple to the ground. He waited a moment to give the Dalek time to come closer. He then took the gun and shot the Dalek dead without any sign of mercy. Quickly he hurried to Sherlock who was heavily breathing on the ground.

"It's okay, I've got you. Don't worry." He said while trying to take him by the shoulders without it being too painful for him. He managed to pull him down the hall way and soon he could see the TARDIS.

Sherlock was smiling while looking up to him.

"Are you alright?" John asked, still convincing himself that Sherlock wouldn't die quite now.

"Yes, I'm fine…" Sherlock replied in a hoarse voice.

The Doctor opened the TARDIS door and ran over to them to help get Sherlock in.

"What happened?" he asked, but John didn't reply.

"Two-two-one-B…" was all Sherlock murmured, his eyes starting to automatically close.

"But that means-"

"He knows." John interrupted. They both placed one hand under his back and managed to pull him into the TARDIS.

The Doctor made his way to the control panel and started pressing the buttons and setting the coordinates to Earth, London, 221B, 15th November 2015, 14:13pm; exactly a second after they'd left.

John kneeled beside Sherlock who was lying on the floor eyes shut.

"Please stay awake. Just please do it for me."

Sherlock's eyes lazily opened again and he gave him a tiny, almost unnoticeable smile. But it looked so sad at the same time.

"Are you okay? Do you need anything?" John asked frantically, desperate for Sherlock to talk to him.

"I'm fine. Except for the obvious maybe." Sherlock whispered.

"You can't die now."

Sherlock glanced around and the TARDIS came to a stop.

"No, but I must die _now._"

The Doctor ran over to them and opened the door. He then took Sherlock in the same way as before and waited for John to do the same.

"I… can't."

"You have to, John!" John pursed his lips and proceeded to getting Sherlock out of the TARDIS as fast as possible. His eyes flashed over to the digital clock: 14:15 12 15/11/2015

_Four minutes left…_

John knelt down next to him and put his hands under Sherlock's head so it'd be more comfortable for him.

"Listen, we can still work this out. You can still get out of here, you know? I'm sure there's a way…" He turned around to the Doctor who was silently standing above them. "Right?!"

The Doctor sighed. "Yes, he could survive. But this is his wish, John. You have to let go."

"Are you sure about this? We could still leave now, Sherlock!" he checked the time; it was already sixteen passed two and thirty five seconds. There wasn't much time left.

"I'm sure, John." Sherlock said quietly under his breath. "It's too risky..."

"Come on! Please! Just don't die!"

"Goodbye John…" Sherlock closed his eyes

"No, no!" John screamed aggressively shaking Sherlock.

He burst into tears and gently laid his head onto Sherlock's chest, listening to that faint heartbeat about to give up. The Doctor watched, near tears as well, his eyes constantly flashed over to the clock.

14:16 47

…

14:17 24

…

14:1749

…

14:18 56

The Doctor leaned over to John to pull him away from the body, but he fought the Doctor's hand back.

"No! He's not gone yet!" he sobbed angrily.

Fear came over the Doctor's face. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I can still hear his heart beat!"

The Doctor quickly got his sonic screwdriver out and scanned Sherlock.

"Something's wrong."  
"Everything's wrong…" John muttered angrily, still tightly holding onto Sherlock.

"He's not going to die for another three minutes."

John's attention was high now and he pulled himself away and stared at the Doctor. "That's not possible."

14:19 28

"You know what to do, John." He nodded over to the gun, John had left on the desk the previous time they'd been here.

"No. I can't do that."

"You have to."

"Why can't you?!"

"I don't think he'd want anyone else than you doing it."

John remembered what Sherlock had said: _I trust you with this John_

He got up and walked towards the desk. With shaking hands held it up and aimed it at Sherlock's head.

14:19 47

"Goodbye, Sherlock. I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise." He whispered while waiting for the courage to actually do it.

14:19 59

The sound of a gunshot filled the room and then silence. John stayed in the same position, still pointing the gun at what was now left of his best friend. The Doctor slowly walked over to him and cautiously took the gun from his hand before John got the idea of doing something else with it.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

John didn't answer.

_I killed Sherlock Holmes, my best friend, even though he was already considered dead._

That was a very hard sentence to make sense of, but he knew it was true. He knew why all of it had to happen. He knew why Sherlock had to go, why he chose to go, and the most surprising of all these facts: he accepted that.

"It's okay. It's fine this time. I was with him, I know why he left and he didn't leave an unsolved mystery behind this time." John finally replied turning around to face the Doctor.

He smiled sadly. "Are you coming?" he gestured the TARDIS.

"No."

"What are you going to do?"

"Well…" John looked back at the body on the ground. Sherlock was smiling, as if he'd fallen asleep after a great day.

"I think he deserves a proper service, not like last time. And also he was never able to clear his name, I think it'd be good to do that for him. After that… who knows?" he said.

The Doctor was worried he meant something along the lines of what happened when they met until John added:

"Oh, and can you take that gun along, please?" he said while untying the rope from the ceiling. "I don't really want any murder suspicions…"

"Of course." The Doctor said throwing the gun over his shoulder and it landing inside the TARDIS (John wondered whether that was just a miraculous coincidence or if he was actually coordinated at times). He turned around and stepped through it and John looked at the blue police box one last time. Just before it took flight the Doctor leaned out again.

"Oh and before I forget. Have a great life, John!"

"Thank you, Doctor. And to you."

"My pleasure, doctor."

And with that, the door closed the TARDIS dematerialized out of 221B for the last time.


End file.
